WWII Concepts

1. Reparations: payment for damages after a war

2. Neutrality: taking no sides in a conflict. The United States demonstrated this in WWII until
December 7, 1941.
3. Neutrality Acts: Laws that banned arms, sales, or loans to countries at war
4. Pacifism: Belief in peace and refusal to fight in wars.
5. Anschluss: The annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938.
6. "Peace for Our Time": The phrase spoken by Neville Chamberlain in 1938 at the end of the
Munich conference
7. Fascism: a political system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and racism
and no tolerance of opposition
8. Nazism: fascist political philosophy of Germany under dictator Hitler
9. Kristallnacht: (Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout
Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.
10. Bataan Death March: April 1942, American soldiers were forced to march 65 miles to prison
camps by their Japanese captors. Many prisoners died en route.
11. December 7, 1941: Japanese attack U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
12. August 6, 1945: USA drops bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan
13. Allied Powers: the United States and its allies, which opposed Germany, Japan, and Italy
during World War II
14. Axis Powers: A military alliance between Germany and Italy later joined by Japan
15. Sudetenland: an area in western Czechoslovakia that was coveted by Hitler
16. Nazi-Soviet Pact: Hitler and Stalin promised not to attack each other
17. Munich Conference: Hitler promised that Germany would seek no further territory once it
required the Sudetenland
18. Blitzkrieg: "Lightning war" - type of fast-moving warfare used by German forces against
Poland in 1939
19. Luftwaffe: the German Airforce
20. London Blitz: The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7
September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. The name is a shortening of the German
term, "Blitzkrieg", or "Lightning War"
21. Vichy France: French regime in World War II after the German defeat of France.
22. El Alamein: Town in Egypt, site of the victory by Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery
over German forces led by General Erwin Rommel (the 'Desert Fox') in 1942-1943
23. V-E Day: "Victory in Europe Day" when Germany surrendered (May 8, 1945)
24. V-J Day: “Victory in Japan Day” when Japan announced surrender (August 14-15, 1945)
25. Battleship Missouri: The ship where the formal peace treaty was signed between Japan and
the Allied forces,
26. United Nations: world organization for peace started after World War II. Eleanor Roosevelt
was the first representative of the US.
27. Iron Curtain: term for an invisible political line that divided Europe between Communists and
non-Communists
28. Truman Doctrine: A doctrine that promised to aid people struggling to resist threats to
democratic freedom.
29. Warsaw Pact: An alliance between the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. This
was in response to the NATO alliance.
30. Appeasement: the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying
 grievances through rational negotiation and compromise
31. Sanctions: rewards and punishments used to encourage people to follow norms; also to boar
trade
32. Miracle of Dunkirk: After Hitler conquered France and trapped the British soldiers, the
British were able to ferry the British soldiers accross the English Channel to safety
33. Radar: measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to
detect and locate distant objects
34. Operation Barbarossa: codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during
World War II.
35. Lend-Lease Act: allowed sales or loans of war materials to any country whose defense the
president deems vital to the defense of the U.S
36. Genocide: deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group
37. Maginot Line: French line along the border of Germany; French thought that no enemy could
pierce this 350-mile line of tunnels, concrete forts, and antitank fields
38. Final Solution: 1942 Nazi program that began the complete physical destruction of the Jews
39. Island- hopping: a WWII strategy in which the allies invaded islands that the japanese weakly
defended in order to stage further attacks
40. Kamikaze: a Japanese pilot who carried out suicidal attack on a target
41. Holocaust: the organized killing of European Jews and others by the Nazis during WWII
42. Bloc: a group of countries in special alliance
43. NATO: an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country;
US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries
44. Sonar: the use of sound waves to detect objects underwater
45. Atlantic Charter: FDR and Chuchill meeting that stated that condemned aggression, affirmed
national self-determination, and endorsed the principles of collective security and
disarmament.
46. Collaborator: Person who cooperates with the enemy. Ex. Those who turned Jews in to
Hitler's Gestapo
47. Concentration (death) camps: camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany for the
purpose of killing prisoners immediately; Jews and non-Jews were brought to them to be put to
death as part of Hitler's "Final Solution."
48. Auschwitz: Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the
Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there.
49. Potsdam Conference: The final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Britain,
and the Soviet Union on July, 1945. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of
Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War
50. Marshall Plan: A plan that the US came up with to revive war-torn economies of Europe. This
plan offered $13 billion in aid to western and Southern Europe.
51. Nuremberg Trials: The Allies agreed Axis leaders should be tried for "crimes against
humanity"; 177 Germans and Austrians were tried, 142 were guilty; a handful received death
sentences
52. Berlin Airlift: Mission during the Cold War in which the U.S. flew supplies to West Berlin after
the Soviets blocked roads, railroads, and rivers
53. Cold War: A conflict that was between the US and the Soviet Union. The nations never directly
confronted each other on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years.
54. Containment: preventing the spread of communism
55. UN Security Council Permanent Members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United
Kingdom and the United States
56. Satellite: nation politically and economically dominated or controlled by another, more
 powerful country
57. Arms Race: Cold war competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union to build up their
respective armed forces and weapons

People
1. Big Three: Term used to describe the leaders of Great Britain, France and the U.S.A who drew
up the Treaty of Versailles - Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt
2. Winston Churchill: In 1940, he succeeded Neville Chamberlain as the Prime Minister of
England. He was part of the big three during WWII
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR): President of the United States during the Great
Depression and WWII (died April 1945). Part of the Big Three.
4. Joseph Stalin: Soviet leader of USSR throughout WWII. Assumed power following Vladimir
Lenin's death in 1924. Part of the big three.
5. Dwight Eisenhower: United States 5 star general of the army in Europe and north Africa and
commander of D-Day invasion. Supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe.
6. George Patton: a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding
corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well-known for his
controversial outspokenness.
7. Chester Nimitz: United States Admiral and the commander of the Pacific Fleet during World
War II, he directed the U.S. victories at Midway, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
8. Douglas MacArthur: Commanded the U.S. Army Forces Far East during WWII. He directed
many of the military engagements in the Pacific Theater.
9. Adolf Hitler: Chancellor (Reichspräsident) of Germany from 1933-1945. Called Fuhrer by
his party. Head of National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI)
10. Erwin Rommel: ("Desert Fox")one of the most celebrated Nazi commanders during World
War II
11. Joseph Goebbels: Hitler's propaganda minister who played a central role in the Final Solution
12. Heinrich Himmler: German Nazi who was chief of the SS and the Gestapo and who oversaw
the genocide of six million Jews
13. Benito Mussolini: Il Duce: the Leader of the Italian Fascist Party
14. Hermann Goering: Field Marshall who was second in command to Hitler and head of the
German Airforce
15. Rosa Robota: Jewish concentration camp prisoner who smuggled dynamite into Auschwitz
and rebelled against the prison guards
Military actions
1. Battle of Dunkirk:
2. Pearl Harbor: American Naval base in Hawaii that was bombed by Japanese planes on
December 7, 1941 and pushing the Americans officially into WWII.
3. Siege of Leningrad: The unsuccessful attempt of Nazi soldiers, from 1941-1942, to capture the
city of Leningrad. AS many as 1 million civilians died
4. Battle of Midway: U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the
Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.
5. D-Day: June 6, 1944, the day on which Allied forces landed in Normandy, France to begin a
massive offensive against the Germans in the occupied territory of Europe.
6. Rape of Nanking: In late 1937, Japan defeated the Chinese city of Nanking. Chinese civilians
were brutalized and thousands were killed. The event shocked Western powers and contributed
to sanctions against Japan.
7. Battle of Stalingrad: Unsuccessful German attack on the city of Stalingrad during World War
II from 1942 to 1943, that was the furthest extent of German advance into the Soviet Union.
8. Battle of the Bulge: December, 1944-January, 1945 - After recapturing France, the Allied
advance became stalled along the German border. In the winter of 1944, Germany staged a
massive counterattack in Belgium and Luxembourg which pushed a 30 mile "bulge" into the
Allied lines. The Allies stopped the German advance and threw them back across the Rhine
with heavy losses.